Return on investment

If asked how much your organisation spends on storing paper would you be able to give an accurate answer? If the answer to that was no don't worry, you're not alone, most paperwork is managed using systems which have evolved over the years with very little conscious planning. In fact the same document might be copied several times and filed by various departments, for example purchase invoices which would be stored by the accounts department in its master invoice file and alongside any related correspondence, the department who ordered the goods also keep a copy for its own records.

When you need to find a document someone has to scale your paper mountain, this can be time consuming and costly even if you have a great paper filing system. The proper implementation of electronic archiving could leave any authorised member of staff able to retrieve any document within seconds without leaving their desk even if they are in a different office or working from home.
Dependant on what documents you scan there are many benefits, some of which are listed below.

• Single Point of access to all documents.
• Greatly reduced retrieval times.
• Increased physical space with the paper gone.
• Reduced cost of paper storage.
• Reduced Photo Copying Costs.
• Full security backup of all documents.
• Cost Savings.
• Tidier Office.
• Less duplicated effort.
• Dealing with incoming calls instantly and on the caller's bill.
• Company wide instant retrieval of documents.

Scanning your paper starts saving you money from day one therefore the return on investment is typically less than a year.